


Indebted

by ambiguously



Category: Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Crack Treated Seriously, M/M, MayThe4th Treat, Post-Order 66
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-04
Updated: 2019-05-04
Packaged: 2020-02-10 16:53:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,438
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18664474
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ambiguously/pseuds/ambiguously
Summary: Obi-Wan has a newborn to take care of and a price on his head. He goes to the only person he can for help.





	Indebted

**Author's Note:**

  * For [skatzaa](https://archiveofourown.org/users/skatzaa/gifts).



Obi-Wan had a newborn and a price on his head. He planned to hand off the first and hide from the second on the sandy, forgotten world where Anakin was born. Instead, when he'd arrived on-world, his careful queries told him Owen Lars and his young bride had left Tatooine a year ago.

As safe havens went, this one was far less appealing with no one here to take care of the child except him. He'd have to locate a better sanctuary, and he should stay moving while he searched.

* * *

"Good morning!" Hondo's rich voice filled the cramped cabin as he poked his head in. He'd obviously been awake for hours.

Obi-Wan had not. He opened a bleary eye. "Good morning," he said in as pleasant a voice as he could manage. "You know he was up half the night."

"I know! What a charming lad!" Oh dear. Awake and already intoxicated.

With a quiet groan, Obi-Wan sat up and rubbed his head. "How much do I owe you as of this morning?"

"Let me see, let me see." Hondo counted up on his fingers. "Ninety three standard days since you and my favorite little passenger came aboard. Factoring in transportation expenses, food, wear and tear on your bunk, special cleaning expenses for Luke's bunk, and of course," he sniffed, "a premium surcharge for not turning you in to the Empire. That totals twenty-six thousand credits."

"Pity. I left all my credits in my other traveling robe. And how much have I made?"

"I believe you are almost at a thousand credits, my friend. Yesterday's work was very profitable." Hondo patted him on the back. "And now, it is time to work."

Obi-Wan shuffled out of his bunk and into his new clothes (fifty credits per piece, a bargain according to Hondo). He looked the part of another pirate, even if he couldn't replicate the attitude, and none of the rest of Hondo's crew took time off for feeding and changing a baby (another fifty credits docked every time). He was accruing debt as fast as he worked it off.

In his tiny bunk, Luke stayed fast asleep. Obi-Wan kissed his head, and went to work.

* * *

After two hundred days had been and gone, they both stopped counting. Obi-Wan would never dig himself out of the hundreds of imaginary debts Hondo piled onto him, and he found that he didn't care. Despite the dangerous nature of his new lifestyle, he'd learned long ago that Hondo's first priority was saving his own skin, and they avoided the worst dangers for plumper profits elsewhere.

"What do you think?" he asked Luke during a change, mentally tallying the cost of a new diaper out of habit.

Luke squirmed and tried to roll away. He'd be crawling any day now.

"Ah, there's my boy," Hondo said, swaggering in. He noted Obi-Wan was done with the diapering, and picked Luke up in a wide, swinging arc of his arms. "He will make a fine pirate!"

"He most certainly will not," Obi-Wan said. "Luke has a bigger destiny ahead of him than robbing Trade Federation and Mining Guild ships."

Hondo chucked the boy under his chin. "Don't listen to him, boy. There is no better destiny." Luke laughed.

* * *

It was the first anniversary of the Empire, of the day he'd lost everything, and nearly Luke's birthday. The pirates put on the holonet feed of the mandated fireworks display because they liked fireworks, and they drank because they liked drinking. Obi-Wan put Luke down to sleep, and for the first time, he joined them, choking on a cup of their foul brew.

"You drink this on purpose?" he asked Hondo incredulously.

"Only when we haven't stolen anything better. As it turns out, I have an excellent vintage put aside in my private stores, if you would care to sample." His gaze glittered at Obi-Wan. He'd been making more overt gestures as time went on, although to his credit, he'd also accepted Obi-Wan's polite refusals.

Tonight, Obi-Wan wasn't in the mood to refuse. "I'd be honored to share a cup with you," he said, and locking the cabin he shared with Luke, he followed Hondo back to the Captain's private quarters.

Hondo pulled out a bottle. It was not an excellent vintage, but Obi-Wan didn't mind. "Thank you," he said, tasting the sharp alcohol. "For all of it. Thank you for taking us in. Thank you for not pushing the matter of how much I owe you. You could have."

Hondo poured a generous measure into his cup, then lay down on his bunk. "You expected that, did you?"

"I did."

"Surely you know by now I prefer a more, shall we say, romantic touch. If you do not want to warm my bunk, I can find plenty of others who do. We will discuss it no more."

"I apologize for thinking poorly of you, my pirate friend."

Hondo laughed, and the sound was rich. "You always make me laugh. I like that about you." He took a drink. "I like many things about you."

Obi-Wan took another sip of his own, decided he couldn't abide it, and set the cup aside. He hadn't come here to drink, and he hadn't come to work off a debt. He'd come here tonight because his world had ended a year ago, and this bombastic man was the closest thing he had to a friend. He leaned in closer.

"And if I do want to share your bunk?"

Hondo grinned around the edge of his cup. "Then we have much to discuss."

* * *

The first time was out of grief and loneliness. Obi-Wan had fewer excuses for the second time, and none for the third. After a while, he stopped counting the nights just as they'd stopped counting his debts. It made things easier.

* * *

Luke learned to shoot a blaster by the age of four.

"This is a terrible idea," Obi-Wan said, watching the boy in mild horror.

"Nonsense!" Hondo bent down. "Luke my boy, what is the first rule?"

"Make sure they give you their money!"

"See?" Hondo said, beaming with pride. "He's a natural!"

Obi-Wan felt the eyes of a thousand years of Jedi Masters on him as he patiently ruffled Luke's fair hair. "He's naturally something," he agreed.

* * *

When Luke was fourteen, they accidentally joined the Rebellion. Obi-Wan hadn't expected to see Bail Organa again, and had intended to avoid him, but one job he wasn't consulted on later, and suddenly they were attempting to attack Bail's personal ship, and Obi-Wan had a blaster pointed at his nose.

"You?" said his old friend with disbelief.

There was a blaster sound, and Bail collapsed. "Got him!"

Obi-Wan sighed and said, "Luke, your aim is improving, but your timing is not." He touched his comlink. "We are scrapping this mission. Repeat. We are not taking this ship."

Hondo's voice came back to him. "I am not hearing you correctly, oh love of my life. We are definitely taking this ship."

"No, we are not," Obi-Wan said, and that was all he managed before he felt the stun blast, and before he fell senseless to the floor, he saw a dark-haired girl with a deep, angry frown holding a blaster. She looked to be exactly Luke's age.

Oh dear, he thought, and blacked out.

* * *

"They're pirates!" stormed the girl. Leia. Bail and Breha had kept the name, just as he'd kept Luke's name. "We can't possibly let them join up."

Bail glanced at him. "There are special circumstances."

"You can keep the Jedi, but Hondo Ohnaka is wanted in seventy systems."

Obi-Wan cleared his throat. "I feel obligated to point out that we've been married for four years." Luke had talked them into it. He wanted his dads to be properly married, which meant kidnapping another ship's captain to do the honors, but they had let her go unharmed afterwards, so it probably counted as all right.

Really, his moral compass could use some adjustment, Obi-Wan mused.

Bail stared at him. "You married Hondo?"

"We would have invited you to the wedding, but circumstances didn't allow. You know how it is."

Leia gave an annoyed groan and stalked out of the room. Luke's eyes followed her, and Obi-Wan caught Bail's worried glance on that, too. They'd have a talk with the children as soon as possible. The time had come for many stories to be told.

"My life has become very strange," he said. He looked over at Hondo's slumped-over form, still out from the stun blast. "But good. Strange but good. We have a lot to catch up on."


End file.
